Movie review: Step’ a surefire heart-warmer

Thursday

Aug 10, 2017 at 12:13 PMAug 10, 2017 at 12:13 PM

Al Alexander More Content Now

It’s called “Step,” a nicely compacted documentary about a hip-hop art form helping impoverished young girls climb to new heights of opportunity and self-respect. But look deeper, beyond the plethora of feel-good tropes, and you’ll find something startling raw and worrisome about a large segment of society — in this case, young black women — with little or no chance of ever bettering themselves.

These girls, all charter members of the step-dance team from an all-female Baltimore charter school, beat the odds, fulfilling their promise for each to win acceptance to a college, most of them on either full or partial scholarships. They’re the lucky ones. How many girls like them, you ask yourself, exist in our alleged “land of opportunity” that don’t have their talent, their incredibly supportive home life, or their dedicated teachers and mentors refusing to let them lose? That thought breaks your heart, especially in the wake of Steve Bannon’s alleged quest to diminish affirmative action. It also lends credence to Bernie Sanders’ call for free college for all.

While such thoughts weren’t the intention of the doc’s director, Amanda Lipitz, they blatantly lurk around the edges. But they also exacerbate your admiration for the girls who do make it, albeit with many a trial and tribulation created by loving parents dealing with issues as varying as clinical depression and job loss. There’s also the hovering specter of Freddie Gray, who lived just down the street from one of the girls before his suspicious death in the back of a police van in 2015. Clearly, good grades and dance competitions are not their most significant worry, evidenced by their very moving inclusion of the now famous “hands up, don’t shoot” chant into one of their perfectly synchronized routines.

Still, most of what Lipitz chooses to portray is significantly uplifting, as the girls nervously navigate their senior years at Baltimore’s Leadership School for Young Women. Between the hours of grueling, physically demanding practice, Lipitz finds the girls preparing college and financial-aid applications, pouring over homework, fretting low grades and high tuitions, but surprisingly few internal squabbles with teammates or coaches. These are bright and — as is the case with the film’s breakout star, Blessin Giraldo — beautiful young women who lack only one thing: Opportunity.

They want it desperately, just like their teachers and parents before them. And for me, these mentors are the real heroes of the successes we watch unfold. Their pay is low, their motivation keen and their reward is seeing each girl punch a ticket out of a life of poverty. The kids don’t always listen, but you never doubt their respect for what’s being done for them. And that’s what makes “Step” such a surefire heart-warmer. It’s non-stop people helping people, a concept Congress — just 40 miles up the road — would be wise to practice.

The shame is that at a mere 83 minutes, we don’t get to know the girls as well as we desire, unlike the very similar “Hoop Dreams,” which clocked in around three hours. That classic featured just two superior athletes. “Step” gives use three in Blessin and her teammates Cori Grainger and Tayla Solomon. So there’s even less time to get to know the girls well. It’s Cori who is by far the smartest, inching closer and closer to a full-ride at prestigious Johns Hopkins, which is a blessing since her step dad just lost his job. My favorite is Tayla. Or, more precisely, Tayla’s corrections officer mom, who shows up at step practice and isn’t afraid to entertainingly let loose with her inner-child, much to Tayla’s chagrin.

But “Step’s” heart and soul rests with Blessin, the girl who founded the step team when she was in sixth grade. Like Tayla and Cori, she will be part of the school’s first graduating class, an honor she may not get to realize if she doesn’t hurry to get her grades in order. A combination of the best of Serena Williams and Beyoncé, Blessin is determined to prove she’s much more than a pretty face, but her self-doubt — not to mention a depressed mother and unsupportive boyfriend — make her path even more difficult. Like a lot of us, it’s not until it’s almost too late before she wakes up to what she’s about to let slide away.

Even though you know where “Step” is going every step of the way, you hang on what fate holds for Blessin, yet you never doubt her, nor her teammates. And as the movie chugs toward the inevitable “big game” (a tristate competition in nearby Bowie), you become further and deeper entangled in each of their lives. And wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could do that for every Blessin out there in danger of slipping through the cracks? That’s a wish and a dream “Step” leaves you craving as it sends you exuberantly dancing in the aisles.

“Step”A documentary by Amanda Lipitz featuring members of Baltimore’s LLOB high school step-dance team. (PG for thematic elements and some language.)Grade: B+